Do you know why I ran for governor?
I was leading the Robin Hood Foundation, one of the largest poverty fighting organizations in the country, and one of our biggest priorities was tackling child poverty.
We were trying to get a governor to work with us on the child tax credit. So for 6 months, we worked hard to get a single line in this governor's State of the State speech.
But when I got an advance copy of the speech, there was nothing in there about child poverty or the child tax credit.
I was pissed off. I'll never be okay with allowing so many children to grow up in poverty, and all that work seemed to be tossed out the window. I called up our organization's head of policy, and I'll never forget what he said to me:
"Listen, we've worked for 6 months to try to get him to include a line in the speech. But what if you could write the whole speech?"
I realized I could try to convince people on things until I'm blue in the face, or I could be the one who writes the whole speech. So I ran for governor, and with the help of this grassroots team, I won.
Now, we're able to launch a bipartisan, all-out assault on child poverty in the state of Maryland. And I announced it in my own State of the State.
I love this place too much to continue slow walking progress. I love our people too much to leave the real challenges they face without solutions.
Because of you, we've already launched the first-of-its-kind effort, ENOUGH, that's invested over $13 million into communities right here in Maryland to fight childhood poverty and reached more than 12,000 Marylanders in just its inaugural year.
Now, we're building on that momentum with the next phase of ENOUGH, expanding what works and doubling down on community-led solutions that give every child a real chance to thrive. ENOUGH is already committed to pouring $19 million in funding to continue our mission of ending childhood poverty in Maryland.
This is just the beginning.
Elevate,
Wes
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